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The SA Human Rights Commission has identified 39 municipal wards in Eastern Cape municipalities where there are children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).
The Commission released a report on Thursday following an investigative inquiry done in the wake of reports highlighting tragic cases of malnutrition in children due to abject poverty.
Commissioner, Jonas Ben Sibanyoni, said their report makes findings and recommendations to the government on how to alleviate malnutrition, particularly in children under the age of five.
Despite having multiple programmes and initiatives, Commissioner Sibanyoni said they identified the absence of a unified strategy and a significant lack of coordination among various government departments which has led to the rights of children being infringed.
He said the right to life, food, equality, education, and not be discriminated against based on race have been compromised, as black and coloured communities are said to live in abject poverty, leading to extreme cases of malnutrition.
For the period between April 2021 and March 2022, 1087 children presented with SAM in the Eastern Cape, while 116 children died due to the condition.
SAHRC Eastern Cape manager, Dr Eileen Carter, said this number was higher in reality, as many cases go unreported.
The commission has recommended that various government departments, including the National Treasury, the Departments of Social Development and Basic Education to collaborate to alleviate what they labelled a “national disaster”.
Among the recommendations is an increase in the child support grant, with a staggered approach prioritising children under the age of five.
The Department of Basic Education has also been asked to extend the school nutrition programme to include weekends and holidays, and to cater to children in early childhood development centres.
The SAHRC also called on the national government and the Premier, Oscar Mabuyane, to consider using disaster legislation to declare a state of disaster around child malnutrition and to establish a command centre to address poverty and severe, acute malnutrition in children.
Meanwhile, local municipalities and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs have been requested to implement local food security policies and bylaws and advised to work with the Development of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform to establish community gardens and provide support to small-scale farmers.
The commission also noted that in recent years, there has been a notable pattern of underspending, particularly by the Department of Social Development, amounting to nearly R500 million in the past three years alone.
Dr Carter said the dichotomy of children dying of hunger while money to alleviate poverty remained unspent needed to be looked at.
“We have engaged with Provincial Treasury to consider a baseline analysis of whether the money is not there to address basic human rights before re-allocating it to other departments.”
The various departments were given between three and six months to report on their efforts to mitigate what the SAHRC described as a disaster.
